I was placing some orders on Amazon today when I decided to get an Amazon Prime account. What is that? Basically for $79 a year I get unlimited 2 day shipping on anything I purchase on their site. I calculated how much I spent on shipping last year and it was in the hundreds so $79 is a good deal. Now whats cooler is that Amazon Prime allows you to invite 4 other household members to use this account. Doesn’t sound interesting.. until you realize ALL of us Aramex users are counted as living in the same household since we all have the same address. So I sent an invite out to Tivo Guy and Nibaq since they’re my best friends. If this works then we are going to have so much fun buying stuff of Amazon. Also if you need anything delivered overnight, as an Amazon Prime member you only have to pay $3.99 to have any of your items shipped overnight. Amazon just keeps getting better.

All I want is a 20cm Tefal frying pan from the Privilege line and I can’t find it. I know I saw it at Sultan Center before but when I went and checked today it wasn’t there. I went to 2 Sultan’s, the Salmiya and Souk Sharq plus City Center Salmiya and this other store that had a large collection of Tefal pans and none have the pan I want. Nat kept bugging me to buy any pan that its all the same, but I told her no. They are NOT all the same. Here are the specs of the Privilege line:

– A cool yet stylish dark exterior, made from PTFE, is tough, durable and easy to clean
– 5.5mm thick induction base for perfect heat distribution
– Stylish glass lids with stainless steel rims and adjustable steam vents
– Pouring lip on all pieces for safety and ease of use

In summary, it looks good, its affordable and I can’t find it.. here is the link with more info.

I passed by Al-Ghanim Electronics yesterday because I needed to buy a fridge. While there I also picked up laserprinter and scanner. Last time I bought a laserprinter was in 1996, it was an HP 5L I believe. It was a pretty decent laserprinter but later on in its life I was getting a lot of paper jams. I actually don’t think I ever changed the toner for it either. Thats what I love about laserprinters, you buy them and you forget about them. No need to keep buying expensive ink and if you don’t use it for a month or two, nothing clogs up. So yesterday while checking out the printers, I had my eye on two. One was a HP LaserJet 1012 and the other the LaserJet 1160. The first model was around KD69 while the second one KD120. I was gonna go ahead and buy the cheap one but the thing looked really flimsy and problematic. Plus, since I buy a laserprinter once a decade I figured why not pay a bit more and get something that looks like it will last a lot longer. So I went with the LaserJet 1160. While checking out the printers I remembered nat wanted a scanner. So I turned around and found the scanners section. The choices there were a lot easier. Most of the scanners were unknown brands while the most expensive scanner they had was an HP for KD40. So since I had just paid 120 for a printer, 40 sounded very cheap and I got that. Its the HP Scanjet 3970 scanner.

When I was done paying they got me the boxes for my goodies and to my surprise the printers boxed looked like it was open. I went downstairs and noticed the printer I had chosen was not on display anymore! The fuckers tried to give me the printer on display without telling me. So I complained, they apologized and blamed it on the salesman. They then told me I had to go to the Hawalli branch and pick my printer up from there.

Once home I opened all the boxes (new stuff always smell so nice) and set everything up. Everything works perfectly and looks good. Bit my bit my design studio at home is starting to look and feel like a… design studio.

Facing a problem parking your car when you shop at TSC Salmiya? Now you can leave the parking to us! Just drive up to the valet parking kiosk in front of the store, collect your ticket, and begin your shopping. When you’re finished, visit the valet service desk inside the store to arrange for your car pickup. Then pay for your purchases along with just 1 KD for the valet service. Your car will be waiting for you when you exit the store.

Hours of operation: 10 a.m – 11 p.m daily.

How to use TSC’s Valet Parking Service
– Drive your car to the TSC Valet Parking Kiosk
– Collect your ticket from the valet
– Perform your shopping
– Before paying, visit the Valet Service Desk inside the store to arrange for car pickup by showing your ticket number
– Pay for your purchases along with 1 KD for the valet service
– Cashier will stamp your valet ticket
– Keep your TSC invoice and stamped valet ticket
– Your car will be brought to you just in front of the exit door, where your purchases will be placed in the car
– Show your invoice and your stamped valet ticket to the valet
– Take your car and have a nice and easy day

Policies and Procedures
– Please keep the valet ticket, as it is the only proof of your ownership of the car.
– In case this ticket has been lost, please inform the company as soon as possible in order to take action at once, or else the company will not be responsible for any car lost.
– In case of ticket loss, kindly provide the company with all your legal papers to prove ownership.
– The company is not responsible for any mechanical problems that occur to the customer’s car during the receiving, parking, and delivery of the vehicle.
– The company is not responsible for any item lost from the car during the valet service.
– All cars are insured against accidents when they are under our custody and by company’s drivers.
– All cars should be picked up by 12:00 midnight

I met with Nibaq awhile ago for lunch. He had been walking around Muthana complex trying to kill time until it was time for me to have lunch. While walking around he found a new Apple store that was still being worked on. The place is called Solize and is not connected to any of the other local dealers. We spoke to the guy incharge who was busy displaying mac hardware and he seemed like a nice person ALTHOUGH when Nibaq asked him if he supplied RAM for the powerbooks the guy asked is it Apple? Like duh… Anyway the store had two cool things. First they had second hand macs for sale although not cheap. One was a Graphite G4 500mhz powermac for 300KD. The second was a Dual 800mhz Quicksilver powermac for around 430KD. He also told me he had a Dual 1GHZ mirrored door powermac inside, but I didn’t see it nor did I ask its price. Another good thing he had although once again not cheap was Sonnet Encore CPU upgrades for older powermacs. A G4 1.4ghz upgrade would set you back 190KD at solize compared to the 450$ on amazon. The store will be completed within a week. I personally think this store will NOT succeed due to the terrible location. Its in Muthana Complex, Mezzanine 1, right in the back behind Steps and near the Asus and As Seen on TV dealers. Impossible to find and even if it was located at the main entrance, I doubt the people who frequent Muthana are potential Apple users..

I passed by Mac & More today in Galleria 2000. The place was closed but the storefront is all glass so I could see what was inside. A couple of things grabbed my attention. First, the store has a large sign-age outside saying “Apple Center”. Then on the far right of that sign in small it says “Mac & More”. So ummm.. if the store is called Mac & More shouldn’t that be the largest and highlighted? Secondly the place does not match the official Apple Stores design. Thirdly they are using a red colored apple logo..?! Finally the place is tiny! Like ultra small. My pakistani barbershop is bigger.. and i am not being sarcastic here! I looked inside I could see 1 G5 powermac with an Apple display, 2 imacs, and a bunch of ipods on the shelves. I wasn’t able to see any powerbooks or ibooks nor any shuffles and mac mini’s. They seemed to have some accessories like the itrips and some skinz, but other then that nothing special. I was expecting “more” and didn’t get to see that. I am not a businessman or anything, but I personally think the store is gonna fail. It isn’t offering anything that the other retailers aren’t. If the store opened last year maybe it would have been better, but now that Apple products are being sold at Eureka and Virgin.. I don’t see how this store is gonna do any good. I have some pictures below which I quickly took from outside without the security catching me.

Just got word that an Apple store opened at Galleria 2000 called Mac and More. The store belongs to IOC, the same guys who put the Apple stuff at Eureka and Virgin. They are supposingly getting the Mac Mini next week. Tivo Guy who now has a blog gets it tomorrow. I am sure he will take many pictures for us fans :)

Dunkin’ Donuts is the world’s leading coffee & donut chain, with over 5,500 stores in 40 countries. Continental Food Est. is the franchisee for Dunkin’ Donuts in the United Arab Emirates, and currently operates 26 Dunkin’ Donut stores throughout the UAE. Continental Foods Est. has been granted the franchise for Dunkin’ Donuts in Kuwait and is planning to open the first store by the end of 2004.